Sleeping Sickness: How Losing Sleep May Be Damaging Your Health By Staff

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Time to Wake Up?

● Fatigue is a Fatigue in 100,000 auto crashes and 1,550 crash-related deaths a year in the U.S How Much Sleep? ● For optimal functionality, adults need an average of 7-9 hours of sleep a night ○ In a major sleep study, almost 80% of respondents admitted that they were not getting enough sleep

Sleep Deprived Disasters

● Nuclear Accident at Three Mile Island Experts believe that sleep deprivation was a significant factor in shiftworker’s negligence ● Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster According to reports, certain managers involved in the launch had only slept two hours before arriving to work at 1 a.m. that morning ● Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Third mate Gregory Cousins was allegedly sleeping at the helm after working a 22-hour shift

The Long-Term Effects:

Weakened Immune System Even “modest” sleep deprivation (less than 6 hours of sleep per night) has been directly linked to reduced immune response

Sleep Paralysis Those who are sleep deprived are more likely to wake in an immobilized REM state, resulting in feelings of fear and panic

Depression Those with insomnia are 5x more likely to develop depression than those without

High Blood Pressure Skipping sleep forces your heart to work overtime without a break, increasing your overall blood pressure and potentially leading to other heart conditions

Weight Fluctuations When the body stays awake for too long, it struggles to process blood sugar and leptin (a protein hormone that regulates appetite and metabolism)

Damaged Bones Researchers found changes in bone mineral density and bone marrow in rodents who had been deprived of sleep over a period of 72 days

Sleep as a Healer:

• Sleep helps to rid your braid and body of toxins and waste • The flow of cerebrospinal fluid increases significantly during sleep, flushing waste from your brain • Brain cells shrink up to 60% during sleep to make cleaning easier • Sleep elevates the level of inflammation mediators, which can prevent the development of future diseases